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Godfather Of Champions Chapter 275

Chapter 275: Derby Part 2

Chapter 275: Derby Part 2

Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio

As an outsider, Tang En did not understand much of the rivalry that spanned close to one and a half centuries between the two teams. He was more willing to attribute it to Notts County’s jealousy of Nottingham Forest’s achievements. After all, Forest had twice attained the highest honor within the European clubs. Furthermore, they had also maintained a long-term position in the first group within the domestic league. The honors they had gained were so much more than those of Notts County.

Within Nottingham, Notts County had always represented the citizens of a lower tier. Black and white jerseys, a club that never managed to escape the clutches of a financial crisis, playing around in the lower leagues… All these were compatible with the image of poor miners. It was just like the two teams in Spain’s capital, Madrid: Real Madrid and Atlético Madrid. While Nottingham Forest represented the well-off middle-class citizens, Notts County was the ideological prop of the poorer, lower-classes.

Once soccer was elevated to a height of a class-struggle, Tang En could visualize and understand the heated clash that was bound to occur.

Reality proved his speculations.

The tickets for the match sold out early. It was not just on the day itself; the tickets were sold out two days before the match. When Notts County had successfully advanced into the third round of the English FA Cup and was scheduled to meet with Nottingham Forest, all the tickets were quickly snatched up.

To Notts County, whether they could become champions of the FA Cup was of no consequence at all. Even if they lost to a less worthy team in the next round, they would not be too upset. However, this was only true if they beat Nottingham Forest this round.

On the other hand, Nottingham Forest did not have any particular obsession with this match. If not in consideration for the feelings of Forest’s fans, Tang En was considering sending out a combination of the Youth Team and Reserve Team. There were hardly any players from Nottingham Forest that held a deep grudge against Notts County; most of them were “migrant workers.” Faced with a derby game in which teams came from different levels, there was just not that much interest.

The pre-match preparations progressed as per usual. Forest’s players did not care much about their opponents. In their eyes, both the Premier League and UEFA Europa League were much more important.

Just five minutes into the match, Notts County gave Forest a taste of their prowess, sending the ball slamming into their goalpost with a long shot from afar!

When it came to passion for “Derby games,” England’s fans were in the top three.

Once the match had begun, so long as Notts County had possession, the entire City Ground would be blanketed with loud jeers. But now, there were at least two seconds of silence that filled the spectators’ stands. For the Forest fans, they saw the victory of this match as a given; there would not be any incident.

Yet, Notts County’s first shot had almost scored them a goal. Forest was momentarily stunned.

In the previous round of the league match, they had played on their home grounds against Newcastle, who were also in black and white jerseys. The fans had taken that match as a rehearsal for today. Playing amid ear-deafening jeers, the players from Newcastle were completely discombobulated.

But this technique seemed to have no effect on Notts County.

In the first half of the match, Notts County was not at all disadvantaged and was fighting with Forest Team on even grounds. Though neither the abilities nor overall stamina of their players were on par with Forest team, they clearly had a greater fighting spirit than Forest’s players. They were more willing to run and give their all. This attitude made up for whatever else they were lacking.

The first half ended with 0:0. Both teams fought a bland battle for 40 minutes. Although there was not much technique involved, it was still effective against Notts County.

At half-time, Tang En told his players not to view this match as a simple match-up against a football team from a low-level league. The concept of “Derby” did not need further explanation from him. They had to face up properly to their opponents, especially their arch-rivals from the same city.

Forest’s players who returned to the field with the attitude of “this is an important match, and we have to do our best” were no longer as easily dealt with by Notts County.

After just ten minutes of resistance from Notts County in the second half, their goal finally took its first hit.

A direct free kick from Albertini 28 meters outside the penalty area shot beautifully into Notts County’s goal. The goal ignited City Ground and, at the same time, demolished the intangible wall between the two teams.

While spirit could influence a moment or two, it could not influence the entire match; on the soccer field, it was still concrete ability that spoke the loudest. Although Notts County was unwilling to lose, they knew that the difference in their abilities with the current Forest Team was too great.

A point behind Forest, Notts County continued struggling to retaliate with the intention of equalizing the score.

But five minutes later, the merciless Forest team scored another goal. Ribéry finally scored his first goal for Forest. Based on his capabilities, this goal came indeed a little too late. However, in exchange, he ranked first within Forest Team for his offensive assists.

In facing Notts County’s players who were evidently weaker than he was, Ribéry put up a good show of a tremendous struggle in the wing, dribbling past numerous Notts County players with the ball, and finally took his shot at the opponent’s goal from a corner of the goal area.

The difference between 2:0 and 1:0 was not merely a single goal. What followed was the complete collapse of Notts County.

Throughout the whole of the second half, Tang En stood at the sidelines. His action made Forest’s players think he was supervising them; they did not dare to slack off.

At the end of the match after 90 minutes, the electronic scoreboard stopped at a score of 6:0. What was an intensely ferocious derby game transformed into a one-sided butchering thanks to Tang En’s work “behind-the-scenes.”

Looking at Notts County’s fans giving him the finger from the spectators’ stand, Tang En knew that the differences between the two teams would continue to intensify in his period of management of Forest Team. While there might not be an opportunity for them to meet again on the field, the score of 6:0 was enough to sear it into their minds for a lifetime…

He shrugged and smiled as he turned to walk towards the location of the press conference.

Being hated by his enemies felt good.

※※※

“…We played a brilliant game. I am very proud of my players’ performance. They didn’t take their opponents lightly simply because their abilities were less than ours; they displayed great sportsmanship with their performance. I believe that the fans of Notts county will agree with me on this. They will not regret being defeated by an opponent that did their best…”

“Dog-s**t! Who likes being defeated by you guys?!” A Notts County fan spat in fury and threw the Nottingham Evening Post onto the ground.

“We sure would rather you serve up your Youth Team to lose to us!”

Looking at Tony Twain’s happy, beaming face on the newspaper, he stomped on it. As if it was not enough, he spat on it again, right onto Tony’s face.

Godfather Of Champions

Godfather Of Champions

冠军教父
Score 8.3
Status: Completed Type: Author: , Released: 2007 Native Language: Chinese
This is a story about the pursuit of victory. — “I subscribe only to the theory of victory. I only pursue victory. As long as I am able to obtain victory, I don’t care if it’s total football or counterattack. What is the ultimate goal of professional soccer? In my opinion, it is victory, and the pinnacle of victory is to become the champions. I am a manager. If I don’t wish to lose my job or be forgotten by the people, there’s only one path for me to take, and that is to lead the team in obtaining victories, in obtaining championship titles!” The main character was not well-liked by people. — “⋯We conducted a survey which had been deemed by Manager Tony Twain as extremely meaningless. In a random street survey conducted, ninety-three percent of those surveyed chose the option ‘I hate Tony Twain’, while only seven percent chose the option ‘This person is rather decent, I like him’. It is worth noting that nobody chose the option ‘Who is Tony Twain? I don’t know him’. Mark, do you know why Manager Twain felt that our survey was very meaningless?” Parker, a reporter from laughed loudly and said when he was being interviewed by BBC. But there were also people who were madly in love with him. — When Tony Twain was forced to talk about the survey conducted by during an interview, his reply was : “I am happy, because Nottingham Forest’s fans make up seven percent of England’s population.” And he did not seem to care about how the others saw him. — “What are you all trying to make me say? Admit that I am not popular, and everywhere I go will be filled with jeers and middle fingers. You all think I will be afraid? Wrong! Because I am able to bring victory to my team and its supporters. I don’t care how many people hate me and can’t wait to kill me, and I also won’t change myself to accommodate the mood of these losers. You want to improve your mood? Very simple, come and defeat me.” His love story had garnered widespread attention. — “Our reporters took these pictures at Manager Tony Twain’s doorsteps. It clearly shows that Shania entered his house at 8.34pm and she did not leave the house throughout the night at all. But Manager Tony Twain firmly denies, and insists that that was merely the newest-model inflatable doll which he had ordered. He was the number one star of the team. — “⋯ Became the spokesperson of world-wide famous clothing brands, shot advertisements, frequented the fashion industry’s award ceremonies, endorsed electronic games, has a supermodel girlfriend. His earnings from advertisements exceed his club salary by seventeen times, owns a special column in various print medias, publishing his autobiography (in progress), and is even said that he is planning to shoot an inspirational film based off his own person experiences! Who can tell me which part of his life experiences is worthy of being called ‘inspirational’? Hold on⋯. Are you all thinking that I’m referring to David Beckham? You’re sorely mistaken! I’m talking about Manager Tony Twain⋯.” He was very knowledgeable about Chinese soccer. — “⋯ I’ve heard about it, that Bora gifted four books to his manager Mr. Zhu before your country’s national team’s warm up match. After which, the team lost 1:3 to a nameless American team from Major League Soccer. The new excuse that Mr. Zhu gave for losing the match, was that Bora gifted “books” (‘books’ and ‘lose’ are homophones in the Chinese language). Here, I recommend that you guys find out what that one specific book is. Which book? Of course the one that caused you all to score a goal. After that, tell me the title of the book. Before every match, I will gift ten copies of that same book to you. In that case, won’t you all be able to get a triumphant 10:0 win over your opponents every time?” An excerpt taken from Tony Twain’s special column in a certain famous Chinese sports newspaper. He was loved and hated by the press. — “He has a special column in at least four renowned print media, and he is able to get a considerable amount of remuneration just by scolding people or writing a few hundred words of nonsense weekly. While we have to contemplate hard about our drafts for three days before our boss is pleased with it. In an article inside his special column, he scolded and called all of the media ‘son of a bitch’, announcing that he hated the media the most. But every time he publishes an article, we flock towards him like flies which had spotted butter. Why? Because the readers like to read his news and see him scold people. I dare to bet with you, and Manager Tony Twain knows clearly in his heart as well, that even though he says that he hates us, he knows that the present him cannot do without us. Similarly, we also cannot do without him. Is this ultimately considered a good or a bad thing?” Bruce Pearce, a reporter from said with a face of helplessness when talking about Tony Twain. But no matter the case, his players were his most loyal believers. — Gareth Bale, “No no, we never had any pressure when playing on our home grounds. Because the pressure is all on the manager. As long as we see him standing by the side of the field, all of us will feel that we will be able to win that match. Even the football hooligans are like meek lambs in front of him!” (After saying this, he began to laugh out loudly) The reply from George Wood, the team captain of Nottingham Forest, was the most straightforward. “We follow him because he can bring us victory.” The legendary experience of Tony Twain, the richest, most successful, most controversial manager with the most unique personality! Debuting this summer. Thank you for reading.

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